Channel: Heart Health

Now Playing: Why Does Heart Disease Kill So Many?

Jonathan Sackner-Bernstein, Medical Officer, Clinilabs Served as advisor to FDA Cardiovascular and Renal Drug Advisory Committee Author: Before It Happens to You: A Breakthrough Program for Reversing or Preventing Heart Disease

Jonathan Sackner Bernstein, MD: There are two factors that have made heart disease and stroke such a big problem for our society.One is that as our society ages, as we have more people who are over 60, over 70, over 80, those diseases become more common.And the second issue, that actually feeds into that first factor is that our, the lifestyle that is common in western society really feeds into them and makes the problems that much worse.

Narrator: Exactly how does that lifestyle do that?

Jonathan Sackner Bernstein, MD: Well, the links between our lifestyle and these diseases is pretty well established by scientific studies,and it has to do in large part with what we are eating, high fats, processed carbohydrates, it has a lot to do with cigarette smoking,which is probably the biggest and potentially the highest impact factor that could be reversed if that were eliminated,it has to do with a poor physical activity strategy, lack of exercise.So you put all those things together and you end up with people who tend to be overweight or obese,and those factors play into underlying problems of abnormal cholesterol, abnormal blood pressure and a risk for diabetes.